I am indebted to the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain for graciously awarding me a research grant to attend the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada's conference in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada, from 24-27 May 2017.

The paper I presented at the conference titled 'Gordon W. Lloyd (1832-1904): the Canadian Churches of Detroit’s Architect’ was based on research I am conducting for my D.Phil in History thesis at the University of Oxford, which examines the nineteenth-century architecture of Lloyd, who was trained in Britain, lived in Windsor, ON, and established an architectural practice in Detroit, MI. This conference paper showcased my most recently-completed chapter on Lloyd's Gothic Revival churches in southwestern Ontario, which depicts the far-reaching influence of British nineteenth-century architectural traditions on the colonies.

Presenting my paper at this particular conference allowed me to obtain feedback from established Canadian architectural historians, which will have an immense impact on the quality and historical accuracy of my D.Phil. thesis. I have also been afforded the opportunity to publish this paper in the Society's Journal at the beginning of 2018.

Michèle Woodger, RIBA Publishing – research grant of £112.50

I am hoping to travel to Rome to look at Classical Latin inscriptions in situ and in various museums. I am currently working on a project sponsored by RIBA’s Gordon Rickett’s Memorial Fund, looking at contemporary architectural lettering in London’s built environment.

The history of lettering design in the UK – in particular stone letter carving – is heavily influenced by Trajan letterforms. The question remains as to whether the enduring popularity of Classical lettering is due to the geometries of the letterforms themselves, or due to the reception of the Classical world in the modern day. This grant will enable me to see the Roman originals in context. It will also hopefully enable me to use the library at the British School at Rome to access written sources on architecture and the role of lettering craftsmen

Publication grants

Dr Jocelyn Anderson, independent scholar – publication grant of £500

Over the course of the long eighteenth century, many of England’s grandest country houses became known for displaying noteworthy architecture and design, large collections of sculptures and paintings, and expansive landscape gardens and parks. Although these houses continued to function as residences and spaces of elite retreat, they had powerful public identities: increasingly accessible to tourists and extensively described by travel writers, they began to be celebrated as sites of great importance to national culture.

The SAHGB publication grant will go towards supporting image reproduction costs for a forthcoming book on how country houses’ identities as tourist attractions emerged: Touring and Publicizing England’s Country Houses in the Long Eighteenth Century will reposition the importance of country houses in eighteenth-century Britain and explore what it took to turn them into tourist attractions; it will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2018.

Between the 1950s and the 1980s, the landscape of regional theatre in Britain was transformed by the construction of a wave of publicly supported theatre buildings. This research examines the post-war theatre-building boom and sets it in context, showing how Britain's new theatres are not only of interest in themselves but also shed new light on the period's architectural, urban, and cultural histories more generally.

The SAHGB grant has contributed to the cost of images for a substantial book, Modern Playhouses, which is to be published by Oxford University Press in 2018.

Amy's publication grant has been used to cover the reproduction costs of a set of images from the Bedford Archives Services to illustrate her chapter in the forthcoming Women and the Country House in Ireland and Britain publication. Her chapter focuses on the architectural endeavours of the widowed Jemima Yorke, 2nd Marchioness Grey (1723-97) at her London and country residences, which have hitherto received limited academic interest. The aim of the volume is to highlight the integral role that women played in the country house through the exploration and examination of new archival material. The book will be published in Autumn 2017 by Four Courts Press.

Amy’s doctoral research investigates the extent to which elite women of the eighteenth century commissioned architectural works in Britain and the extent to which the type and scale of their projects were dictated by their marital status.As such the SAHGB Research Grant will be used to consult the correspondence of Anne Robinson (1742-c.1815) of Saltram House, Plymouth. Despite being unmarried and dependent, during her lifetime Anne was able to pursue her architectural and aesthetic ambitions both at Saltram and at her London properties. By consulting her numerous letters Anne’s previously overlooked architectural agency will be brought to light.

This research being supported by the SAHGB is a comparative UK–US analysis of the use of architecture in political imagery. It suggests that our analysis of architecture and its relationship with politics has underestimated the importance of pictorial imagery. The White House, Washington DC, the Parliament Buildings, or 10 Downing Street, London, for example, are buildings historically experienced through representations, whether that be in painting, engravings, prints and sketches or, today, through televisual imagery. This research seeks to explore how this domain ace of imagery has repeatedly informed the evolution of architecture in both countries. The SAHGB grant is facilitating visits to relevant archives in the United Kingdom.

Frederick Gibberd was a pioneering architect of the Modern Movement in Britain. Practising as an architect, town planner and landscape architect, he developed a strong visual approach to design which led many to question his place in narratives of modern architecture. This research examines Gibberd’s diverse and far-reaching works to reveal that his visual approach put him at the forefront of the development of a softer, English form of modern architecture and town planning. The SAHGB Publication Grant will go towards image reproduction costs for the forthcoming book on Frederick Gibberd, published by Historic England and the Twentieth Century Society.